Beverly City Councilors Bowen, Rotondo Face Off Ahead Of Special Election Primary

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly City Councilors Hannah Bowen and Todd Rotondo voiced their positions on issues ranging from mounting school and municipal budget concerns, transgender rights, state healthcare reform and the progress to replace the Hall-Whitaker Bridge as part of a 6th Essex District special election candidates night this week.

Bowen and Rotondo are facing off on the Democratic ballot on April 15 to face presumptive Republican nominee Medley Long in the May 13 special election. The Ryal Side Civic Association hosted the forum, where organizers said Long was invited but could not attend due to a prior commitment. Organizers said another forum would be held after the primary for the two remaining special election candidates.

• 3 Candidates On Beverly State Representative Special Election Primary Ballots

Of particular interest to Ryal Side residents is the state of the Hall-Whitaker closure and replacement, causing travel trouble and traffic backups in the surrounding neighborhoods for the past three years.

"Like all of you, I would like to see it done," Bowen said. "I'd like to see something like what I pushed forward in the National Grid project — another extremely painful citywide project. We were able to require National Grid and their construction team to meet with a committee of residents twice a month, throughout the project, and really sit face-to-face and say, 'What is going on?' ... and 'What can we do to fix it?'"

Rotondo said that, as the Ward 1 Councilor, he has already worked with the state and federal delegation to help accelerate the project where possible and secure funding to help the city and neighborhood mitigate its impact.

"I will hit the ground running on this," Rotondo said. "I have been involved with the conversation since the day it started. It was a Thursday afternoon when I got the call from the mayor saying: 'Guess what? Hall-Whitaker is being closed.' And it was disastrous. We had a lot of conversations with the Civic Association and, eventually, the community. So I will continue advocating for them."

On school funding, Bowen noted that emotions are "still really raw" in the wake of the 12-day strike this past November and touted her involvement in bringing the strike issue to the City Council floor, as well as her recent endorsements from the Beverly Teachers Association.

Rotondo said the Chapter 70 state funding mechanism system is broken and that he will work at the State House to increase aid for Beverly, and other cities and towns, that are not seeing funding increase at the same rate as costs.

Both candidates acknowledged dire financial forecasts ahead for Beverly and other state communities.

"It is a rainy day — both literally and figuratively," said Bowen during the forum held Monday night. "All of the options need to be on the table. In some ways, these are the political and economic times that those are there for. But we can't rely on that to carry us through."

Bowen said, if programs need to be cut, she would prioritize preserving front-line care programs, adding that she was "disappointed" in the Healey Administration's budget calling for cuts to mental health services case managers.

Rotondo said that as a state representative, one of his priorities in the legislature will be to "scrap for every dollar" for Beverly.

"Those dollars are going to become smaller and smaller," he said. "We know that. We know that the 'rainy day fund' is available for catastrophic reasons. We hope not to have to get into that system. But there may be points where we have to dip into the rainy day fund."

He added that the state's "right-to-shelter" costs are draining funds that cities and towns that could be used for infrastructure, housing and veterans services.

Both said they support universal healthcare, while Rotondo said he would need to further examine the implications of a "single-payer" healthcare proposal at the state level. Bowen said single-payer healthcare is something she personally would like to support but would also seek the opinions of other stakeholders on its viability and impact.

Both were vehement in their support of legislation upholding the rights of transgender residents — and especially transgender youth — in the face of federal action potentially threatening those rights.

Bowen and Rotondo also both also said they are in favor of the ballot initiative passed that allows the state auditor to audit the legislature — which has faced opposition in implementation on Beacon Hill.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)